Bishop Gets Immunity In Bank Case

May 18, 1988|By Uli Schmetzer, Chicago Tribune.

ROME — Italy`s Constitutional Court has granted immunity to Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, a native of Cicero, Ill., guaranteeing that he will not face prosecution on charges of complicity in the fraudulent bankruptcy of the country`s biggest private bank.

The ruling by Italy`s highest legal authority ended a four-year dispute between the Vatican and the government of Italy over the archbishop`s involvement in the 1982 collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano, which left creditors with losses of $1.3 billion.

Bishop Marcinkus, 66, is president of the Vatican bank, known as the Institute of Religious Works. The bank held shares in Banco Ambrosiano. The main accusation against the archbishop was that he gave letters of patronage to Ambrosiano`s president, Roberto Calvi, who used them to raise dubious loans for his ailing bank.

When auditors began moving in on his bank, Calvi apparently killed himself. He was found hanging from Blackfriar`s Bridge in London.

Court sources said Tuesday that the 16-member panel of judges had rejected the contention by state prosecutors in Milan that it was

unconstitutional to place the archbishop and his two closest colleagues outside Italian jurisdiction.

Last July the Supreme Court of Appeals threw out six arrest warrants against Bishop Marcinkus and his colleagues with the argument that, under the 1929 Lateran Treaty, Italy had no jurisdiction over Vatican affairs.

In a last-ditch attempt to bring the head of the Vatican bank to trial, Milan prosecutor Antonio Pizzi turned to the Constitutional Court.

He argued that it was unconstitutional to prevent Italian citizens from seeking redress for financial damages from the Vatican.

According to the sources, the court ruled that neither Bishop Marcinkus nor his aides, Luigi Mennini and Pellegrino de Strobel, could be prosecuted in an Italian court because the Vatican is a sovereign state.

The decision, which is to be made public at the end of the month, ends efforts to bring the Vatican bank to its knees over allegations that it not only issued letters of patronage but also operated dummy holding companies through post office box operations together with the Ambrosiano bank.

The Vatican has denied those allegations.

In 1984 the Vatican paid out $240 million to Ambrosiano`s foreign creditors as a ``gesture of good will`` but specified this payment was not an admission of guilt.

Italian prosecutors charged that the Vatican bank was responsible for the fraudulent schemes of Banco Ambrosiano because it supported them and benefited financially from them.

Bishop Marcinkus, often nicknamed ``God`s banker,`` lived inside Vatican City until last July to avoid arrest. The Lateran Treaty declares that the Vatican is a sovereign state; attempts to have Bishop Marcinkus, Mennini and De Strobel extradited to Italy failed.

Italian officials said Tuesday that the Constitutional Court ruling ended any attempts to indict the archbishop and blame the Vatican bank in the Ambrosiano bankruptcy scandal.

Though the inquiry into the bank`s collapse continues, Bishop Marcinkus can be called only as a voluntary witness to clear up the mystery of how Italy`s biggest private bank managed to defraud millions of creditors.